Texas National Guard troops arrive at Elwood training facility, could be on streets this week
Questions surround what the National Guard's role will be in the Chicago area.
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The arrival of National Guard troops in the Chicago area marks an escalation of President Donald Trump's crackdown on the city.
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President Donald Trump called up 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and federalized another 400 from Texas with the cooperation of Gov. Greg Abbott, who posted on X that they were deploying on Monday night.
And now, members of the Texas National Guard are gathering at an Army Reserve training center in the southwest suburbs on Tuesday.
Groups of soldiers have been seen walking the grounds of that Elwood training center, many of them likely getting accustomed to the chilly temperatures. Most of the troops apparently arrived on Monday night, and they were greeted by a lone demonstrator, who is opposed to their presence in Illinois.
"It is people from out-of-state coming to our state to try to tell us how to run our city," said demonstrator Erin Gallagher.
The deployment drew outrage from Democratic leaders.
"I think our military men and women signed up to defend the Constitution and our rights and not to be used as political props," said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois.
The use of the facility, which is located south of Joliet, caught local officials off-guard.
Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant released a statement on the troops' arrival, saying, "County officials have been made aware by the State of Illinois and the Village of Elwood of the presence of Texas National Guard soldiers at the Army Reserve training facility in Elwood. We have received no information or coordination from the federal government about this deployment, including the scale of operations or the length of time they will be stationed at this facility.
The arrival of the National Guard by the Trump Administration is an aggressive overreach. Our federal government moving armed troops into our community should be alarming to everyone."
I will be coordinating with local leaders to make sure we are doing everything in our power to protect the rights of our residents and the safety of everyone. Hopefully, the federal court hearing on Thursday will end this attack on our community."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was also in the dark about the use of 300 Guard members from his own state.
"I'm not getting any information directly from the government or the National Guard. They've been federalized," Pritzker said.
The question is whether the troops will be allowed to carry out their mission.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday morning, the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago asked a judge to block the Trump administration's deployment of military troops to Chicago.
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But Judge April Perry, appointed by former President Joe Biden, denied the plaintiff's request for a temporary restraining order and gave the federal government two days to respond.
A hearing was scheduled for Thursday regarding the request, but by then, National Guard troops may already be on the streets.
The Illinois National Guard members who have been federalized still need to undergo days of training, but the Texas service members could be on the streets sooner, because they were already trained for operations on the Southern Border.
Still, it remains unclear exactly where they will be deployed or what their duties will be.
Questions surround what National Guard's role will be in Chicago area
Weeks ago, when Trump started talking about sending the Guard to Chicago, he said the focus was on crime. But the secretary of Defense has said troops will aid federal agents in their immigration crackdown.
And, in recent days, it appeared that the mission would be to support and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement during operation "Midway Blitz."
But on Tuesday, the talk shifted back to crime, despite statistics showing that it is significantly down. Trump met with the Canadian prime minister, bashing Chicago once again.
"If you look at Chicago, Chicago's a great city where there's a lot of crime. And if the governor can't do the job, we'll do the job. It's all very simple," Trump said.
The ABC7 Chicago data team analyzed crime data from the Chicago Police Department. According to that data, there have been 458 murders in the past 12 months. That's down nearly 30% from the yearly average of the prior three years.
And during her testimony on Capitol Hill, Attorney General Pam Bondi was pressed to explain the Guard's mission in Illinois.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, asked, "Why do you want to keep this secret, so the America people don't know the rationale behind the deployment of National Guard troops?"
Bondi responded, "I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump, and currently, the National Guard are on the way to Chicago. If you're not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will."
But the president can only nationalize the Guard in the event of rebellion, foreign invasion or when federal laws, including those for immigration, cannot be enforced, which is why administration officials argue that ICE needs the Guard.
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"If California and LA was the model," said Ed Yohnka with the ACLU of Illinois, "They created a circle around the ICE agents as they engaged in their enforcement activities."
If troops are used to the guard the Broadview ICE facility, protesters say, it will not stop them from demonstrating.
"They're just going to be standing there, and we're going to be doing this peacefully, so I don't know what they're actually here for," said demonstrator Jim Slivovsky.
Some critics suggest that Trump's National Guard deployment is a political stunt. The former head of the Illinois National Guard says regardless, the soldiers have to follow their orders.
"Politics is not a matter of the military. We're here to follow legal orders and we're duty-bound to do so. And if it's legal we're gonna execute them to the best of our ability," said Ret. Major Gen. Richard Hayes.
Hayes says he believes the president called in the reservists from Texas to Illinois because they had already be mobilized for work at the Texas-Mexico border, and they could start immediately. But that does not address the issue of whether they are needed or welcomed in the first place.
"The Texas military does not belong in the state of Illinois," Hayes said.
Johnson fires back: 'Donald Trump declared war on Chicago'
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson seemed to agree on Tuesday, saying, "The governor of Texas should be worrying about Texas. Why he all up in my business? Focus on Texas."
Johnson is waiting to see what the National Guard deployment might mean for Chicago, but he minced no words on Tuesday about his frustration with the situation.
"The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation's history," Johnson said.
The mayor was more sarcastic when reacting to FBI Director Kash Patel's post that he was coming to Chicago and that the city will be saved.
"Kash has come in here to really enjoy the city of Chicago and spend money. And I strongly encourage him to spend as much as he possibly can," Johnson said.
Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were both spotted in Chicago on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Johnson says deploying the Guard is illegal, unconstitutional and unnecessary.
"Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That's what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos," Johnson said.
Illinois' two senators put out a joint statement with their counterparts in California and Oregon, accusing the president of fabricating claims of chaos and crime on the streets to justify what they called his false assertions about a need to deploy troops.
Pope Leo XIV was asked about the National Guard being sent to his hometown Tuesday. He said in Italian that he would not comment about political choices in the U.S.
